File Photo/Somali Times
Somali Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdirizak Mohamud, who was interviewed on ClubHouse, said Somalia could do without foreign financial support. The answer to the question of whether we need financial support is yes, we can,” he said.
He added, ”In order to avoid this, Somalis need to understand that we have a very rich country and its people are very poor. Many people may find the Gulf countries rich. If you look at Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, they have oil, most of them only have oil.”
The minister argued that Somalia could have played a better role if it had been able to produce its own oil. He added that he had seen studies conducted in 2009 suggesting that Somalia would be the world’s third largest producer of oil.
”Somalia has a lot of oil. In 2009 studies I saw indicated that Somalia would be ranked number seven in the world if its oil were extracted. A few years later I saw another study that said that if Somalia had oil it would be number three. Fuel is in addition to what we call natural gas. Russia is the world’s number one country.
“In second place is Qatar, as I expect, and I think Somalia would have reached the same level if not more,” he said.